Indian Railways builds a subway crossing in record 4.5 hours

July 6, 2018

Indian Railways constructed a subway crossing in just four-and-a-half-hour between Pendurthi and Kottavalasa line in Andhra Pradesh.

The limited height subway, which was constructed a few months back, has created a record and now denizens and social media are hailing the achievement of Indian Railways.

The level crossing No. 484 between Kottavalasa and Pendurthi is a four-track manned level crossing.

“The work for this project was sanctioned in 2017. The limited height subway work, which was done a few months back consists of 20 segments of 1.5 m width while the size of the box is 4.65 m X 3.65 m. These 20 segments had been launched in four and a half hours,” said a railway official posted at the East Coast Railway (ECR) in Visakhapatnam, who is managing the section.

Indian Railways used 16 heavy duty excavators, 3 heavy duty cranes, 5 tippers (truck), 1,000 sand bags, four hydra machines, heavy weight jacks and 300 workforce for the project.

“Just after starting of the block, the track was removed with the help of cranes, earthwork started from both sides. Simultaneously the shifting of boxes and base plate were done. After reaching the center, the surface preparation was carried out and base slabs and pre-fabricated boxes were placed using heavy-duty cranes,” said a railway official describing the effort.

“The activity of earthwork for starting the placement of boxes took one hour; for placement of 20 boxes, for placing of base slabs after surface preparation and linking of tracks, it took 1.5 hours and in total the total block was completed in 4.5 hours,” added ECR officials.

Now, that the subway has been opened, the manned level crossing has been closed; chances of accidents have also reduced.